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Projects funded by the stimulus package have allowed highway contractors in North Carolina to recall laid-off workers. The state now has $348 million in highway and bridge projects under way funded by the stimulus. Contractor S.T. Wooten, for example, hired back at least two dozen workers after winning 14 stimulus contracts.

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More than half of workers in their 20s cash out their 401(k) holdings when they change jobs, in part because the balances are low, benefits consultant Aon Hewitt reports. As with older workers, financial advisers recommend taking the long view and finding a way to move those funds into new retirement accounts.

John Deere and workers in its Brazilian plant that makes grain planters and harvesters settled a four-day strike in which the union demanded a 10% pay raise and reinstatement of year-end collective holidays. More than half of the plant's 1,700 employees went on strike March 15, but reached an agreement on wages three days later.

Highway projects funded by the stimulus package have created jobs for thousands of workers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. However, some observers say the states' economies have yet to experience the full benefit because it takes time for the work to ramp up. In New Jersey, major stimulus projects include the repaving of I-295. In Philadelphia, workers are rehabilitating the Girard Point Bridge as part of one of Pennsylvania's larger stimulus projects.

Federal workers are prohibited from sending text messages while driving government vehicles, using government-purchased cell phones in their own vehicles, or while using their own phones and cars to conduct government business per an executive order signed Wednesday. A plan to prohibit interstate bus drivers and truckers from texting while driving is in the works as well.

As many as 94% of workers with medical benefit coverage report that their stress level affects their job performance, and 36% say it affects their productivity, according to a recent study. The survey found that 52% of the workers felt their employers failed to work out stress or behavioral health issues with the employees.